Chinese contractor Synohydro has won the tender to dual the Nairobi-Magadi highway stretch in Kenya in a move aimed at reducing traffic congestion within the city.
Transport and Infrastructure cabinet secretary James Macharia announced the reports and said that Synohydro Construction Ltd will build the road through a performance-based maintenance contract that gives the contractor up to 10 years for maintenance and repair.
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Magadi road expansion
The 22.65 kilometre stretch starts at the junction of Lang’ata road near Bomas and runs towards south-west direction through Ongata-Rongai and terminates at Kona Baridi. The dualling of the project is set to start November and will take one year to be completed.
The dual-lane section will be terminated just before the Southern bypass ramps in order to prevent major works, increased land-take and disruption to the Southern bypass since the existing underpass does not allow for the dual-lane width. Cs Macharia said that the project will be undertaken through the annuity roads financing program.
Mr Macharia added that the contractor will also expand the Bomas-Dagoretti market road which is located in Nairobi. The 13.9 kilometre road starts at the junction of Langata road near Bomas of Kenya, heading in a westerly direction through the Karen shopping and commercial centre (roundabout) and ends at Dagoretti Market T-Junction.
The scope of work on this road will entail upgrading to dual carriageway with the exception of a section of some 3-Km between Karen road and the Hub shopping centre, which have already been dualled.
Several roads in the outskirts of Nairobi and the counties are set to be constructed using an annuity model, where banks provide the cash in loans, with financing planned to hit US 1.7bn in two years.
Among the roads to be tarmacked or improved are the Uplands-Githunguri-Ngewa-Ruiru, 68-kilometre Modogashe-Samatur road in Wajir County, 75-kilometre Rhamu to Mandera road, says the Budget Policy Statement provided to Parliament for 2018-19.
This road project has not taken off yet, when is the expected start date.